1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutting fluid jet machine for supplying cutting fluid to a cutter in a machine tool, and particularly to a cutting fluid jet machine having a variable tilt angle and a variable length of a nozzle that ejects cutting fluid.
2. Description of the Related Art
Machine tools typically employ a machining method using cutting fluid. With recent development of cutters, the feed speed has increased. However, high-speed machining requires a high efficiency in cooling a cutter.
Cutting or grinding performed with a machine tool often uses cutting fluid in anticipation of a lubrication effect, a cooling effect, and a chip removal effect, for example. Cutting fluid stored in, for example, a dedicated tank flows into a pipe through a driving unit such as a discharge pump and is ejected onto a cutting point or a cutter from a nozzle tip located on an extension line of the pipe.
A nozzle used for supplying cutting fluid is generally called a coolant nozzle, and the location of the tip of this nozzle needs to be adjusted in order to supply cutting fluid onto a cutting point or a cutter. In many coolant nozzles of machine tools that are currently on the market, the location of the nozzle is adjusted manually, and the adjustment is repeated every when the length of a cutter changes. This takes considerable time, disadvantageously. In addition, many coolant nozzles need to be kept at some distance from a cutter or a cutting point in order to avoid interference with a jig, a workpiece material, and a spare tool, for example. The more a nozzle is distant from a cutter, the more the supply location of cutting fluid becomes indefinite. Thus, adjustment performed only once is insufficient for positioning the nozzle in many cases, and accordingly, the liquid fails to be ejected onto the tool tip. This causes a significant decrease in the lubrication effect, the cooling effect, and the chip removal effect.
To solve such a problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-018674 discloses a technique of providing a multi-axis driving unit in order to automatically adjust location of a coolant nozzle. In this technique, cutting fluid is supplied onto a cutting point while interference is being avoided by automatically changing a nozzle angle in accordance with a machining program in drilling.
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-018674, however, when the nozzle excessively approaches the cutting point, the nozzle interferes with the cutter.